Why should you use a virtual world?

Why is a virtual world better than the communication or collaboration alternatives you are using today?

We answer these questions by comparing OLIVE to the main communications alternatives that organizations already have been using. In essence, all of these communications technologies try to re-create the experience we get normally in a live, in-person meeting, but with substantially less cost and much greater convenience.

Once you experience an OLIVE-based meeting, you will see that the engagement and interaction is very close to a live, in-person meeting. However, users can join anytime, and from any place, and at the lowest cost of the options listed below.

	Benefits	Challenges	Costs (per user per year)
Audio Conferencing	Familiar Ubiquitous Perceived to be inexpensive	Poor participant attention span Unclear context / speaker ambiguity No display of data
Web Conferencing	Familiar Ubiquitous Inexpensive	Same interaction issues as audio Single-source media sharing Added cost for phone or VoIP calling
Virtual World (OLIVE)	Face-to-face like Multiple-source media sharing Wider range of use cases	Trusted / familiar environments Learning curve IT readiness
Telepresence or Video Conferencing	Face-to-face like	Requires visiting installed sites Pressure for a camera-ready appearance
Travel for In-person Meetings	Best experience	Productivity loss traveling to meeting Wide variability of cost with no upper limit